Role Inheritance & Substitution

Liturgical roles are not flat. A bishop may serve in the place of a priest, a senior celebrant may fulfill a lower role, and local practice may allow substitutions.

{
  "id": "role-bishop",
  "type": "bishop",
  "labels": { "en": "Bishop" },
  "implements": ["role-priest", "role-celebrant"],
  "substitutesFor": [
    {
      "role": "role-priest",
      "scope": "eucharist",
      "validWhen": {
        "authorityStatusAtLeast": "parish-reviewed"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Resolution Rules

Role substitution is contextual. A consumer should check all of the following before accepting a substitute:

1. The requested role appears in implements or substitutesFor.
2. The service or action matches the declared scope.
3. Every validWhen authority condition is satisfied.
4. The active tradition profile permits the substitution.

Substitution is directional: a bishop may implement a priest role, but that does not imply that a priest implements a bishop role. Implementations should reject inheritance cycles and should not infer substitutions from similar labels.

{
  "requestedRole": "role-priest",
  "assignedRole": "role-bishop",
  "scope": "eucharist",
  "result": "valid"
}

The result above illustrates a resolver output, not an additional OLS entity.